Star Wars: Bandit Squadron 2: The Phantom Operation
by plausiblywitty
Summary: When news of an Imperial attempt to produce a chemical weapon reaches the Rebel Alliance they send the intrepid Commander Hapon Dustwalker and Bandit Squadron on a high stakes mission that takes them deep behind enemy lines and to the very brink of what they're willing to give. All OC cast. Rated T for violence, language, and some mild adult themes
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to write, but I'm a touch of a perfectionist (and had so many possibilities it took me forever to decide what direction to go) and have been far busier than I anticipated! Unlike last time I am writing as I go, so there will be some lag between chapters being uploaded as I write them! Anywho, thanks for reading, you all are the best and have amazing taste in fan fiction, and are some of my favorite people! So please read/review and, most importantly, enjoy! :D

Dramatis personae

Bandit Squadron

Commander Hapon Dustwalker (Human male from Courscaunt) Bandit Leader

Flight Officer Celia Lokar (Twi'lek female from Ryloth) Bandit Two

Lieutenant Astin Griffiths III (Human male from Corellia) Bandit Three

Flight Officer Seeker Shan (Echani male from Eschan) Bandit Four

Lieutenant Kea Varik (Human female from Nar Shadaa) Bandit Five/Executive Officer

Flight Officer Atria Lordess (Human female from Alderaan) Bandit Six

Flight Officer Zae Dahn (Duros female from Duros) Bandit Seven

Flight Officer Roxis Vand (Devorian female from Divan) Bandit Eight

Lieutenant Renn Tharen (Human male from Alderaan) Bandit Nine/Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant Asu Botayu (Bothan male from Bothawui) Bandit Ten

Flight Officer Huff Garnix (Human male from Tattooine) Bandit Eleven

Flight Officer Narca Cognit (Human female from Bestine IV) Bandit Twelve

Alliance Starfighter Corps

General Quienna Sienna (human male from Chandrilla)

Renn Tharen stared blankly at the question flashing across the screen of his X-Wing's computer. His mind frantically scoured the recesses of his brain in search of an answer, but the harder he thought, the more illusive the answer seemed.

Biting at his fingernails he guessed, "Saresh?"

His X-wing's R2 unit, referred to a Chrome Dome, or Chrome for short, due to his shiny metallic head, beeped a negative response back at him.

"Genarra?"

Chrome chirped another negative response.

"Well you don't have to get sassy about it!"

Chrome whistled mockingly.

"I swear to Goddess Chrome, I will jettison you in deep space." Renn said as he smiled to himself. In, what he considered a stroke of genius, Renn had uploaded a bevy of various educational texts to his astromech, with the idea being that he would be able to learn new things if he was ever stuck in his cockpit for a overly long spell.

Chrome sanguinely chirped back.

"Yeah, you're right." Renn nodded as if the R2 unit could see him, or read his body language for that matter, before continuing, "I enjoy you far too much to dump your ass in deep space."

Chrome chirped back and Renn smiled.

"Still flunking your astromech's pop quizes, Renn?" Renn's roommate Asu Botayu, a Bothan who Renn had befriended all the way back in flight school, interjected mockingly.

The thought of mocking Asu's lack of education, as the Bothan had been raised on a pirate fleet and wasn't schooled in manners that weren't pertinent to piracy, briefly shot through Renn's head. But he chose not to say it, and was stricken with horror that he could even consider saying something that cruel.

"At least my idea of 'self improvement' goes beyond buying a more expensive shampoo." Renn shot back playfully, and felt satisfied with his choice of poignant but harmless barb.

"That's not true!" Asu mockingly protested, "I invested in top of the line conditioner as well! Check your facts, college boy."

Renn rolled his eyes and shifted in his seat, twisting around to crack his back. The four X-Wings of Bandit Squadron's third flight had been hidden in an outer rim asteroid field doing literally nothing for five hours.

Before deployment Renn had tried to argue that, as the squadron's intelligence officer, he had too much work to do and he suggested sending second flight. But Hapon Dustwalker, the Bandit Squadron's commanding officer, was having none of it and remained firm in his order to send Renn and third flight.

 _Bloody_ _Dustwalker and his pointless rigidity. I'm a much better Intelligence Analysts than fighter pilot._

Third flight had been assigned to guard an engineering team who were mining one of the asteroids for fuel. It was a boring, albeit safe, assignment. The sort of boring yet safe assignment a squadron gets after they survive a bloodbath

Like the blood bath the Bandits had barely made it out of over Cypress II. The Bandits had engaged an Imperial Battle cruiser in a last ditch effort to save the peaceful settlement situated on the moon. Although they managed to save the colonists and destroy the Battle Cruiser, the Bandits paid a heavy price, with only five of the original twelve pilots making it out unscathed.

Renn shifted again and popped his knees.

 _I swear, no one my age should have some creaky bones._

"Do you two ever shut up?" Narca Cognit, one of the new replacement pilots in Bandit Squadron, asked her sharp voice full of disdain.

Renn smirked and looked at Asu's X-Wing sitting idle next to Renn's craft in space. Although he couldn't see his Bothan wingman Renn knew that Asu was smirking wildly as well, and without saying a word they knew exactly what the other was thinking, and sprung into action.

"Do we ever shut up?" Renn asked, mischievous smirk still stretched across his youthful face.

"We talked about it once." Asu replied.

"But it never got past talks, correct?"

"Never past talks. Maybe we should shut up?"

"I think we should probably talk about it first."

"But we already tried that."

"And it didn't shut us up."

Chrome beeped frantically.

"You don't think it suits us?" Renn craned his neck to look back over his shoulder at the shiny metallic droid.

"You know what, he's right." Asu agreed.

"Yeah, if we shut up then we'd lose the most integral part of what makes us, _us_. Then who would we be?" Renn posited sarcastically.

"Certainly not us, presumably someone with worse hair." Asu agreed.

"And then who would suppy the squadron with it's trademark bon vivant demeanor?"

"No one. We might as well change our name to Bland Squadron."

"You know, Asu, it wouldn't surprise me if that was Flight Officer Cognit's endgame in all this."

Chrome whistled.

"You're very right, that does sound like a fate worse than death." Renn nodded, and turned around to give Chrome a thumbs up. He was proud of the astromech's ability to join in the banter, and imagined that this is what it must feel like to be a father, watching his child succeed in the world.

"So why don't you shut the hell up, _Flight Officer_ , and go back to working on your machines." Asu's tone had subtly shifted from playful banter to bullying.

Renn winced at needlessly harsh nature of Asu's tone. Mischievous back and forth was one thing, but Asu's gutting barb killed the fun of bantering for Renn.

Renn shook his head, as another of Chrome's questions flashed across Renn's control panel.

 _What philosophical field is noted Alderaanian thinker Collus most renowned for writing on?_

Renn inhaled, then exhaled a deep breath. Collus had founded a number of academies across the galaxy, including the University of Dantooine were Renn had been studying when the Death Star destroyed his home planet of Alderaan.

"Epistemology." Renn answered, his voice pinched, as his eyes drifting out the side of the X-Wing's cockpit.

 _I should really be thanking Collus._ Renn thought grimly. If he hadn't been studying off planet, he would have been killed along with the rest of Alderaans inhabits during the planet's destruction.

He felt a smirk flash across his face, as it occurred to him that he also owed his survival to the University of Alderaan's admissions office for turning him down and forcing him to pursue learning off world.

 _Evidently, sleeping through high school leads to a more promising future._

"Lieutenant Tharen, Lietenant Botayu." Huff Garnix's voice mewed meekly through Renn's headset. Huff was the fourth member of third flight, a human from Tatooine who had a background flying T-16s through the planets many valleys and trenches, a quality he shared with Luke Skywalker a fact that no one failed to point out.

 _And I had a Nerf Burger at the same place that Soontir Fel had eaten once. Surely that means I'll be his equal._

"Don't call me Lietenant." Renn said as his mind drifted off, wondering if he actually had eaten at the same place as Baron Fel.

"Call me God." Asu demanded, his tone deadly serious.

"Renn, God, I got something on my scopes."

Renn felt his chest chest tighten up, and his mind become more present as adrenaline poured into his veins. This far out in the middle of nowhere, when someone appeared suddenly there was only one thing it could be.

"Have they spotted us?" Renn asked. He inhaled and exhaled deeply again, in an attempt to keep his nerves under control.

"Are you sure it's pirates? It could be junkers." Narca suggested, her voice a touch sharper than usual.

"No, junkers would have bugged out at the first sign of armed ships in the area. They'd probably assume we're pirate." Asu responded, the playful tone suddenly absent from his voice, replaced by military calm.

 _Breath Renn. It's probably just some scouts._ _Not a fleet._

Renn switched his comm frequency over to the one being used by the engineering team.

"Scavenger One, this is Bandit Nine, we have multiple banditos coming up on our screen. Get ready to get out in a hurry." To the rest of Alliance Starfighter Corp, unfriendly fighters were referred to as bandits. Only Bandit Squadron referred to enemy fighters as anything other than bandits.

 _We really need a better system for that._

"Copy that Bandit Nine, Scavenger One will be heading out the emergency exit. Estimated time until departure, five mikes."

"Copy Scavenger One. We'll hold the door open for you."

Renn flipped his comm back over to the Bandits frequency.

"…Six pirate Z-95s are in the asteroid field." Huff said, "Looking like a scouting party."

"Yeah but if they don't check in, whatever ship launched them will be hauling ass over here hell bring a whole lot more of those tin cans to the party." Asu said, "That's assuming they haven't already called for back-up. How long are for the engineering nerds to pack up?"

"Five minutes." Renn said as he tightened his helmet's chinstrap, "Are we blasting them fast, or are we laying low and hoping we can slip out the back door without them seeing us?"

"Let's scrap 'em!" Huff exclaimed, his voice brimming with the zeal that only a teenager with a ill informed idea of what combat entailed could muster.

"Shut up, Huff. This isn't a democracy." Asu mumbled, "But that being said, yeah let's blast them. We got the element of surprise and those Z-95s are buckets of bolts. Let's blast em quick, and we'll be in hyperspace before more of them show up.

Renn resisted the urge to bite his nails. He didn't like that plan, it felt like attacking the pirates scouts was just putting the pilots under their command in unnecessary danger.

"Negative 10," Renn barely recognized his own voice as it became colder and more crisp, "Let's shore up behind the engineer's asteroid and slink out without getting hot."

"Come on, Renn!" Huff's voice exclaimed, "We got these pirate scrubs."

"Shut up, Huff." Renn snarled. He didn't like his tone, but his heart was beating fast in his chest it felt like it was rattling his ribcage.

 _You're gonna be okay._ He told himself, _You're gonna make it home._

"I will slap, the blonde out of your hair, Flight Officer Wamp Rat." Asu barked.

"Visual contact." Narca said her voice a mere whisper, "Six banditos 3 o'clock high."

Renn craned his neck up, and caught a glimpse of six grey blurs as they passed between asteroids.

"They're running right past us. Stand down Bandits, we play this Renn's way and ride this one out." Asu said, doing a good job of hiding the relief in his voice.

Huff cursed.

"Huff, In the days of old, I would have gotten to flog you so much." Asu said, "It's a shame that things don't work that way anymore."

Renn watched the six pirate fighters make their way through the asteroid field. He wondered if they were just scouting, or if they had picked up on…he glanced towards the engineer's asteroid.

 _Sithspit._

Renn spun around in his seat, scanning the field for the engineering team, hoping their shuttle wasn't easily.

 _The bastards are heading right for them._

"They don't see us, but they're heading for Scavenger One. " Renn felt his voice crack.

"Narca, stick with Renn. Huff, your backwater dumbass is with me." Asu said, "Attack pattern echo."

Narca and Huff barked affirmations and fell behind the more experienced pilots.

Renn throttled his X-Wing up and set himself on an intercept trajectory for the pirates.

Chrome chirped.

"Gotcha, let me know if they do see us." Renn responded.

Renn did his best to keep a smaller asteroid between the pirates and the Bandits, to keep them out of the way of the pirates line of sight. As they cleared the rock, Renn could see the pirates had split up into two groups of three. One of whom circled the asteroid menacingly, like sharks around a prey, and the other accelerated towards the engineering team's ship, still parked on the asteroids surface.

"You get the guys covering their flank," Renn said to Asu, "We got the pirates taking an attack run."

"Copy that, Tharen." Asu responded, "Move on your mark."

Renn took a deep breath in, briefly regretted not making an attempt to become an Intelligence Analyst full time, and exhaled.

"Mark." Renn heard himself say, and before the words had even left his lips, he heard Asu and Huff fire missiles at the patrolling pirates as he slammed the throttle forward in pursuit of the pirates headed for the engineering team.

Renn bracketed a missile onto the rear most of the pirates, waited for the familiar tone that signified missile lock to sound, and squeeze the trigger on his joystick.

His mind briefly wondered what species and gender the pilot of the Z-95 had been as Renn's missile careened through the fighters hull causing and exploded the fuel and munitions stored inside, causing the pirate's Z-95 to be replaced by a ball of flaming debris.

The two remaining Z-95s soared off in opposite directions. It was a trick pirate fighter pilots were fond of. Split up, in attempt to goad their enemies into one on one combat. The pirates heavier fighters usually held an advantage over the flimsy TIE fighters in one-on-one combat. But there is a significant difference between the Incom T-65 X-Wing and a TIE fighter.

"Narca! Guy to the right!" Renn yelled as he yanked his joy stick to the left, following the pirate's leader as he ducked through the smoldering debris of the pirate Renn had vaped.

Renn throttled back and turned harder to the left, cutting the corner sharper than the Z-95 could. He switched from missiles to blasters and fired a quick salvo, which soared just above the pirate and liquefied a smaller asteroid behind the Z-95.

Chrome squealed frantically.

"On our tail?" Renn exclaimed, hoping that his panic wasn't overtly audible in his voice.

"Narca, were you at?" Renn barked over the comm.

No response.

 _Shit._

Renn jerked his X-Wing to the left, barely avoiding a volley fired by the Z-95 on his tail. He looked back towards the front of his X-Wing, just in time to see the Z-95 he had been chasing dive below his field of view.

Renn threw his X-Wing into a dive, again avoiding a laser blast from the Z-95 on his tail, and gave chase to the first Z-95. But he dove right through the superheated remains of an asteroid that had been destroyed in the fighting. The rocks slammed into the X-Wing, but the shields absorbed the brunt of the impact.

Chrome whistled again.

"Shields down?" Renn felt a cold block settle into his gut, "Do what you can with them."

Renn knew that it was paramount that he finish the pirate he was pursing so he could turn his attention towards evading pirate on his tail. Renn switched back to missiles, and bracketed the zig-zagging pirate. But the pirate's erratic maneuvers stopped him from getting missile lock.

 _Come on lock up…_

Renn squinted focusing on getting missile lock, but he still couldn't get a tone.

Renn's whole X-Wing shook so harshly, that Renn momentarily thought the Z-95 had scored a direct hit and had ended Renn's life, torching him alive inside his X-Wing's cockpit.

Chrome squealed.

Renn glanced over his right shoulder and saw for himself that the pirates laser blast had sheered off the tip of one of his wings, robbing the X-Wing of a fair portion of its maneuverability as well as a laser canon.

Grimacing, Renn realized he'd have to give up chasing the first pirate in order to have any chance of not getting vaped by, let alone shaking, the pirate on his tail.

Renn, frustrated, swore loudly and squeezed the trigger, firing a missile despite not having missile lock, and like most missiles fired without a lock, it sailed wide of its target, and slammed into an asteroid…

…that instantly expanded into a cloud of fire, which exploded out so rapidly that the pirate was given no time to evade the cloud of heat, and the Z-95 was absorbed into the explosion.

 _Fuel in the asteroids._ Renn thought as he twisted his X-Wing under the expanding, cloud of fiery gas. He slammed his throttle forward, using the separation caused by the explosion to turn back around towards the pirate tailing him.

But the pirate had turned tail and began to run, presumably frightened by witnessing his friend get flash-cooked by unprocessed starship fuel, on a course back to where their chase had began, and Renn gave chase, relief flooding over him due to the sudden reversal of fortune.

"Chrome, mark any rocks carrying a notable amount of fuel for me." Renn wanted to make sure he avoided meeting the same horrific, fiery death that he had just inflicted on the pirate.

 _Don't think about that now…_

Several rocks on the X-Wings heads up display were highlighted bright red as Chrome marked the more flammable asteroids in the field.

Renn bracketed the Z-95 and squeezed the trigger, firing a salvo of red super heated plasma, but the pirate lurched suddenly to the right and dodged the shot.

 _My target zeroing is off._ Renn thumbed back to missiles from lasers as he glanced out at his X-Wing's mangled wing. He bracketed the Z-95, and waited as the tone for missile lock filled his cockpit.

But before he could squeeze the trigger, the Z-95 exploded as red plasma pierced its hull, and an X-Wing soared through the fireball that had previously been a pirate.

Renn studied the X-Wing.

It was Narca's fighter, but Renn was puzzled. He had assumed she was dead when she hadn't answered his call for help.

"Sorry about the radio silence, Renn." Narca said, "An asteroid took out my astromech, and I couldn't manage the comms manually while chasing that bugger down."

"Not a problem, Flight Officer." Renn said, feeling both sick from the adrenaline and relief that Narca was alive, "Asu, you still with us?"

"Yes ma'am." Asu responded, the gravity in his voice once again replaced by playfulness, "Sorry if you had to clean up our mess. But _someone_ managed to miss an enemy fighter he had missile lock on twice, and then let the bastard escape."

"Sorry about that, Tharen." Huff said, his voice resonated with genuine remorse.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, I'm sure Asu will do that for you." Renn responded, as he felt his heart slow in his chest from the frantic rate that it has reached during the dogfight.

"Scavenger One," Asu said, "This is Bandit Ten, we got the door open for you. Now let's get the hell out of this file of goddamn rocks."

"Roger, Bandits. We are oscar mike."

Renn flicked his s-foils closed and fell into formation next to Asu.

Chrome chirped.

"Thanks, but we just got lucky right there. Right place, right time, right explosive asteroid."

 _Right off planet university._

He looked out the canopy of his X-Wing, at the warped remains of his X-Wing's charred wing, which looked like the burned remains of an oversized tree, and he couldn't help but imagine his corpse burned to a crisp, which would have happened if that blast had hit his cockpit, or if he hadn't blind fired a missile into asteroid that happened to be a powder keg, then that certainly would have been his fate.

 _I can't do this anymore._ Renn thought to himself as the four X-Wings cleared the asteroid field and jumped to hyperspace.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been two years since Eryk Vand had been himself. Two years since somewhat had call him by his real name, two years since he was allowed to speak his own thoughts. Hell, he barely thought his own thoughts anymore, let alone articulated them. For two years Eryk Vand had been Lieutenant Tando Marrs, and after all that time there wasn't anyone Vand held quite as much contempt for as he did for Lt. Marrs.

 _Fascist bastard._

But, finally, the day had come when Eryk would be able to bury Lt. Marr and never look back. He already had the first month planned out in his head, reacquainting himself with his favorite books, finding people to talk about his views with, and travel to the one of the two places he had always thought was uncannily beautiful and had wanted to visit in his life, the gold beaches of Corellia. His other dream locale, The Aldera Royal Palace, had been destroyed by the Empire.

 _Ancestors damn them, bloody savages._

Eryk grinned. As much as he had hated his last two years as Lt. Marrs he wouldn't change a thing. The amount of damage he was about to do to the Empire was, to Eryk Vand, worth any price.

He owed it all to Lt .Marrs too and his job as chief of security at the Achlys Project. A job that had him thwart an Alliance backed infiltration attempt, and bear witness to all that Achlys Project entailed, which was often gruesome.

Eryk shuddered; watching them test the Achlys had been the hardest part for Eryk. Harder even than losing himself for two years. But again, losing himself and bearing witness to the Achlys would all be worth it just so he could thrash the Empires plans and make sure Achlys never saw the light of day.

Eryk looked at Tando Marrs in the mirror, the charcoal black of his Stormtrooper officer uniform matched his slicked back hair and almond shaped eyes perfectly, giving Lt. Marrs that was unsettling, bordering on monstrous. That made Eryk smile, the fact that he walked among the Imperials everyday looking like a caricature of their fascist goons amused him to no end.

But he also had to admit to himself, that despite his ominous appearance, he looked damn good in uniform. If it wouldn't run contrary to his promise be as Eryk Vand as Eryk Vand would probably adopt Marrs' undercut hair style.

 _But why would I steal some dead fascists style?_ He ran his hand through his straight black hair, smiled to himself, and left his room. The only decent part, about not being able to leave the project grounds was that the convenient commute.

Besides that though, it was a less than enjoyable experience to be stuck on a deep core moon with only forty 'volunteer' scientists and around twenty of the most insanely loyal and devoted soldiers that the Empire could find. On some level, Eryk found their devotion relatable. Being stranded with no one you know, and only the devotion to your duty to keep you strong.

But unlike the men he was stationed with,who worshiped Palpatine almost as if he was a god, Eryk wasn't devoted to a monster. In fact today he was going to help smash the demon they worshiped. He'd spent the last six months preparing his final move, his endgame as Tando Marrs. He was going to have to transmit the data contained in a log he had kept to a smuggling vessel, working on the Alliance payroll, that had snuck into the system. He liked that part of his plan, it felt sophisticated and difficult to foil. But the second part of his plan entailed him stowing away on am Imperial Navy supply ship, and sneaking away when it stopped at a refueling station. He felt like that plan was far more dependent on luck. Eryk hated that. Two years of work being dependent on dumb luck.

Eryk returned the salute of the two Stormtroopers standing guard at the compounds main gate, were the communication hub was located. It was extremely short range, unable to communicate with targets outside of the system, which was uninhabited and under guard of two Star Destroyers and their TIE Fighter detachments. Theoretically the compound should be unable to communicate with anyone who could compromise the integrity of the Achlys Project.

But Eryk was confident with the plan to beam the codes to a smuggler, and in the event of that falling through hopefully Eryk would be hidden away aboard a Imperial transplant vehicle and could pass the date he'd obtained on Achlys to high command in person.

A group of scientists brushed past Eryk, casually discussing the effects of attempting to terraform an area in the wake of Achlys. Their consensus was that you needed at least a century before terraforming had a chance to stick. Eryk felt his shoulders tighten as the possible consequences of what would happen if he failed became all the more apparent to him.

As Eryk entered the communications station he quickly peeked at the watch on his datapad.

 _Right on time._ He thought to himself as he began uploading the data to the communications system.

"What are you doing here?" A voice demanded from behind Eryk, "You're supposed to enter all usage of the project's communications array before you, and I don't recall you checking in with me."

 _Just my luck…_

Slowly turning away from the communications beam, which was still in the process of transmitting, he faced the voice.

It was the base's Technical Sergeant just some kid, not even twenty who possessed an uncanny proficiency with machines and the persistent belief that Palpatine was a savior-type figure for the galaxy.

"Who are you sending a message too?" The Technical Sergeant asked, his suspiciously clearly waved.

"I don't know. I came in here because I heard it sending and hadn't seen anything in the communications log recently." Eryk wrapped his hand around the hilt of the dagger he kept fastened to the small of his back, "Do you think it could have been a mechanical malfunction?"

"Let me take a look." The Technical Sergeant's suspicion had clearly dissipate , but the mechanic's tone still conveyed some discomfort with the whole situation.

Eryk set his jaw and tightened his grip on the knife. Killing the mechanic would make escaping much harder. But if the mechanic stopped Eryk's notes from uploading, then the whole two years would have been a waste.

As soon as the mechanic knelt down to examine the communications terminal, Eryk lunged and yanked his knife free of its sheath.

The mechanic managed to turn and face Eryk, but the only other manner of defense he could muster was the look of pure terror as Eryk jammed the knife under the mechanic's ribcage with is right hand and cover the mechanic's mouth with the other, muffling the mechanics yelp of terror.

Eryk knew things were about to get messy. In a facility this small, when someone was even a few minutes late for a patrol or routine maintenance then people took note.

As Eryk yanked the knife free of the technicians ribs, he heard the familiar sound of Stormtrooper books marching on the hard metallic floor, the claps getting close like an approaching thunderstorm.

"Piss it all." Eryk muttered to himself, as he drew his pistol and trained it onto the door into the comm room. There was going to be no talking his way out of standing over the stabbed body of an engineer, while holding the bloody knife that had ended him.

 _At least I got my date transmitted._

As the first Stormtroopers rounded the corner into the comm room, Eryk remembered the orders he got from Alliance Intelligence before taking this mission. Orders to not be taken alive.

Eryk slid his blaster under his chin.

 _Its was a shame._ He thought as he looked at the Stormtrooper silhouetted in the doorframe. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes _. I really wanted to see the gold beaches before I died_.

* * *

It had been two months since Bandit Squadron had returned to active duty, and three since their battle over Cypress. It didn't seem like very long at all, but the Alliance Starfighter Corps hadn't wasted any time in shuffling a group of new replacement pilots into their ranks and adding the Bandits to the fleet's duty roster.

 _And now we're fighting a war again._

As Hapon Dustwalker scanned the report of the engagement between his pilots and a group of pirates, he couldn't help but be taken back to his days flying in the Imperial Navy chasing pirates across the Empire's frontiers. As much as knowing that his pilots had been in mortal danger only a few hours earlier, Hapon couldn't help but feel a glint of nostalgia.

Hapon swiped to the next page of the report. He was surprised by the combat effectiveness two of the squadron's replacement pilots, Huff Garnix, a farmboy off of Tatooine who was barely old enough to drive a speeder on most planets let alone fly a starfighter, and Narca Cognit a former mechanic from Bestine IV who had briefly served as a combat engineer in the infantry. Both of the new pilots had managed to shoot down a pirate, and Narca Cognit had done so with her astromech droid incapacitated by enemy fire.

It had been Hapon's gut instinct to not let Lieutenants Renn Tharen and Asu Botayu fly as wingmen anymore. Botayu was too much of a pirate, always wanting to disobey the chain of command to go chase adventure and plunder, and Tharen seemed to hold a fair amount of disdain for the more regimented aspects of military life.

Once upon a time, as an officer of the Imperial Navy, Hapon would two have made sure that pilots like that were surrounded by more respectable, duty oriented officers, in the hopes that their more rebellious aspects could be tapered by more demanding comrades. But this wasn't a squadron of pirate hunters anymore; it was a squadron of pirates.

Hapon had always been hesitant at the untraditional and the new, preferring the more tried and time-honed to the needlessly novel, but he also was never one to argue with results.

Someone knocked on the office's door.

"Come in." Hapon said without taking his eyes off of the holo-report.

General Quienna Sienna, group commander of all fighters stationed aboard _Home One._ A stocky man, with dark thinning hair, and a thick beard General Sienna was seemingly always in a flight suit, and never in the stand brown officers uniform, and the message was clear.

 _I'm a pilot first, an officer second._

"General." Hapon said, snapping a salute.

"Oh sit down," Sienna said dismissively as he took the seat opposite Hapon, "We've got important nonsense to discuss."

Hapon sat back down and closed the report. He knew this talk was coming, the talk about what role the Bandits were to take within the Alliance Fleet. They were designed to be a self sustaining piracy cell, not be flying daily sorties from a fleet.

"About our next assignment?" Hapon asked, making sure to use his most professional tone.

"Precisely," The General grumbled and kicked his feet onto Hapon's meticulously organized desk, "I don't suppose another round of piracy in the outer rim suits your fancy?"

Hapon frowned at the General's invasive nonchalance, and Sienna rolled his eyes and took his feet off of the edge of Hapon's desk.

"We could just send you off to the frontlines," Sienna continued, his voice ignoring the interruption, "But you aren't exactly built for that."

"We're built to survive on a backwater planet without any aid." Hapon agreed, "But that tour on the outer rim, was a blood bath. I can't in good faith ask my men to step out into that again."

"You were built for sustainability, now you almost have an all new squadron. All new skill sets, why don't you stay on the fleet for a while longer and see how the new pilots look? I heard two of them got their first blood today."

"Yes sir, I was just looking over the report before you came in."

"Good to hear it." Sienna nodded, "Soldiers who survive their first…"

 _Are slightly more likely to survive their second._

"Well, just know Intelligence is going to want to talk with you before any decision about what to do with you is made." Sienna stood up, "As you were, Commander."

Hapon watched the thick General lumber out the door.

 _Intelligence._ Hapon thought disdainfully, the squadron's first intelligence agent, Carrisima Dodge had orchestrated their whole first mission as a suicide assassination on an Imperial Intelligence agent. The whole thing had given Alliance Intelligence a sour taste in Hapon's mouth.

Intelligence's only saving grace had been naming Renn Tharen the squadron's new intelligence officer. The kid was a walking uniform violation, but Hapon had seen the kid fly into what they had thought was certain death, to save some outer rim settlers.

 _I'd be much more amenable to another Intelligence mission if I get Tharen as my intel attaché, not some lunatic black ops fanatic._

He turned back to the report, and made a mental note to ask the Bandits for their opinions on were they wanted to serve.


	3. Chapter 3

Getting acclimated to life on _Home One_ meant only one thing to Seeker Shae, one of the Bandit's replacement pilots, it meant finding the un-armed training room, challenging the champion, and winning. It wasn't an ego thing, or a bloodlust thing, nor some sort of glory or honor think.

It was a challenge thing. If you had asked Seeker, he would have said he had no choice in the matter. A true Echani always seeked out a challenge.

Seeker was an Echani, a species of near humans distinguishable by their pale skin, white hair, and pale blue eyes, and it was the duty of every true Echani to always better them self through challenge.

Not that Seeker expected much of a challenge from whoever the champion was, assumedly someone who had done some boxing for a few years in their youth and was naturally athletic enough to beat down competitors.

Seeker walked into the gym and looked at the various beings, hitting pads and sparring throughout the gym.

 _Their movement….so ordinary._

Echani, with the similar coloring and build, tend to look alike even to other Echani. But to counteract that they became masters of movement. They recognized each other through movement, and any Echani could tell a dangerous fighter from a flat footed bar brawler just by watching them move for a few seconds. Through movement you could see combat and through combat you could see truth of character.

"Hey, I don't think I've seen you around here before." A straw haired human male said to Seeker, "Do you wanna sign up for a class? Or are you here to just hit some pads and get a work out in."

"Who is your champion?" Seeker demanded. The Straw Haired man moved with a looseness that only someone who had only fought in a gym carried, as if he wasn't aware just how deadly someones fists, feet, knees, and elbows could be.

"Uhh," The Straw Haired boy eyed Seeker up and down, "Brake Aybjer. But I've never seen you before, and you're a pilot not an unarmed instructor. I really don't think you should challenge Sgt. Aybjer. He's very mean and very strong. Maybe a boxing class to get a feel…."

Seeker held his hand up, "I see no challenge in the basic movement of fleet crewmen pretending to be boxers. Give me your champion."

"Yeah," The straw haired man raised an eye at Seeker, "Hold on."

He turned around and walked back into the gym, clearly apprehensive about Seeker. He came back a few minutes later with a thickly built dark skinned human male. The new human moved with aggression, but blind aggression.

"You think you can take me, lanky white haired nerfherder?" Brake looked Seeker up and down, "You know I knock people off the duty roster for weeks at a time."

"Your movement is basic." Seeker said and kept eye contact with Brake, "But I need someone who thinks they're a challenge. You'll do."

Seeker was aware that most beings in the galaxy would consider this an insult or a challenge. A throwing down of the gauntlet. An Echani wouldn't. An Echani would see this a a statement of fact.

"This guy for real?" Brake looked at the straw haired man.

The straw haired man shrugged.

"I'm gonna beat you so hard you're gonna be sane when I'm done with you."

"You're so heavy on your feet. Do you really think you're the first person in the galaxy to know how to kick and punch. I hope you don't think you'll win a fight on the battlefield waddling around flatfooted."

Again a simple statement of facts to Seeker.

Brake took off his jacket and walked to the dueling ring.

Seeker ignored him and put on gloves. They were both offered padded sparring headgear, but Seeker shook it off.

"I want to feel how he hits. I need to. It's how I'll find the weak spot."

"Your funeral, buddy." The straw haired man nearly rolled his eyes as he raised his hands and backed off.

As Seeker took his jacket off the rest of the gym turned to look. He was covered in Tattoos. Almost every square inch of his torso and arms was tattooed by a logo. On Eshan, the Echani home world, families would send their best against each other for challenge. The winning fighter would tattoo the loser's family logo onto his body. A testament to a conquered challenge.

The straw haired man took the center of the ring, looked back between seeker and Brake and yelled, "Go!"

Seeker went into his stance. Low, so he could sit on his punches and find power, but on the balls of his feet so he could move and find range. His hands danced before him, in an attempt to lull his opponent into an overeager attack.

Brake charged forward and swung a looping right hang at Seeker, but Seeker lunged past the punch and used the moment of the dodge to planted a knee on the shorter man's jaw. It landed hard but Brake didn't flinch.

 _You might be as tough as a tank, but you're around as maneuverable as one._

Brake threw a hard kick at Seeker's leg, but Seeker was faster than the champion and planted his own foot on Brake's chest and pushed him away, diffusing the impact of the leg kick.

The two stood at range, and after a few feints Seeker threw a wild spinning kick at Brake's head. Seeker wanted Brake to think he was all flash. To lull him into thinking he was a weak finesse martial artist with no real substance with his game.

Brake took the bait.

Brake threw a series of basic punches, perfectly as how an instructor would teach a beginner to do so. But Brake's punches were slow and Seeker was no beginner and he merely circled out of range of the combination.

Seeker feinted back and forth, and got Brake hesitant for a second before he charged headlong into Seeker and landed a looping right hook on Seeker's jaw.

Seeker felt the punch connect with his face. Pain rung out from his jaw, but the punch wasn't hard enough to give any serious concussive damage to Seeker. Now he knew, that Brake punched hard enough to hurt someone but not hard enough to put anyone out.

 _Or at least not hard enough to put an Echani out…_

It also let Seeker know that Brake was wide open for an uppercut to the jaw.

Seeker waited beat and timed a hard uppercut. He missed, but Brake came back into range to throw another hard punch at Seeker's jaw, but he didn't see Seeker throw a second uppercut. The punch connected with the Champions jar, a jarring kinetic blow that staggered the short man. Seeker capitalized to land a hard hook behind the Champion's ear.

Seeker tried to end the fight instantly with a kick to the jaw, but it landed a little low, near the shorter man's collar bone, and Brake stumbled out of range, clearly rattled by the Echani's power despite the protective headgear he wore.

Brake anticipated Seeker to charge in, and threw a flurry of heavy defenstive haymakers, to dissuade the Echani from pushing his advantage. But Seeker stayed out of range, patiently jabbing away and waiting for the perfect moment to put the floundering staggered champion away. Every time Brake tried charging in hard Seeker circled away, wearing down the sturdy muscled champion.

Seeker circled away until Brake gave him the opening that he had waited for. Seeker landed another clean upper cut and the champion's knees buckled. This time, instead of going for the flashy kick, Seeker slammed another upper cut into the champion's jaw and sent him sprawling to the floor. Seeker smelled the blood in the water and another volley of punches put The Champion entirely unconscious.

Were-as most people would celebrate extravagantly basking in the glory of absolutely trouncing a gym's champion in a very public spectacle, Seeker only allowed himself a soft smile as he took off his gloves.

His chin glowed from the hard right hand, and he could already feel a welt sprouting up from his soft pale skin. It felt good.

It felt like a challenge.

* * *

One month in a coma, one month in and out of bacta tanks, and one month getting used to the cybernetic plate that would permanently adorned his face while he sat in a hospital stewed in his failure.

The last several months had been anything but kind to Tedros Novar. It got so bad he had briefly contemplated if he was actually in hell, being tortured forever by having a permanent reminder of his worst failure welded to his scarred face.

Tedros glared at the reflection in the mirror of his hospital room.

 _'_ _My' reflection…_ He thought as he ran his hand down the metal plate that covered the entire left side of his face. If he could have gotten to a bacta tank immediately the doctors say they could have kept his face mostly intact.

He grimaced at the soft pain that even his soft touch sent shooting down his cheekbone into his skull.

When Tedros had first awoken from his coma he thought it was merely so that the Empire could put him in front of a tribunal for his abysmal failure and have him executed publically for incompetence. But after three months and no contact with Imperial personnel besides the hospital's staff Tedros had begun to hope that maybe he had more than a court marshal to look forwards to.

After allowing an Alliance back piracy operation to wreak havoc across space that he was supposed to police, losing his battle cruiser to nothing but a squadron of X-Wings lead by none other but the former leader of his battle cruiser's TIE Squadron, and allowing an Imperial Security Bureau agent to die onboard his ship Tedros knew that it would be par for the course for him to be made an example of. But usually military courts were swift, and would be more interested in carrying out punitive action as quickly as possible. It wasn't like them to leave him rotting with half a face inside of a military hospital.

 _I have a lifetime of this to look forward to. I look like a metallic monster. God damn you Hapon. If I ever get another chance at you…_

Tedros felt his blood rise in anger as he thought of his former comrade, causing the skin under his plate to burn with pain. But he ignored it, knowing that this was a rage that would only be quelled with Hapon's blood.

The two had been close once, with Tedros being Captain of the _Justicar_ and Hapon leading the ship's TIE garrison, the two had forged out something of a reputation for themselves as The Emperor's premier pirate hunters.

Tedros enjoyed the freedom from the Empire as a whole that the moniker had bought him, and that bastard Hapon was able to sleep soundly feeling like he was doing good things in the Emperor's name.

 _You're the pirate now you nerfhearding son of a schutta. Still think you're doing the right thing?_

He turned from the mirror, unable to stand the sight of the metal monster he had become. His cheek still burned from anger, but he forced himself to enjoy it. It reminded him of what he was _going_ to do. It didn't matter were the Empire sent him. He was going to destroy Hapon Dustwalker.

The door slid open and Tedros turned. A tall, blonde woman, wearing the uniform of a Stormtrooper captain and marching with all the brisk rigidity that that entailed walked into the room.

"Captain Novar, it's good to see you fully recovered." The woman's voice was just as measured and firm as he gait. But something steely cold lurked behind it, something frightening.

"Thank you, ma'am." Tedros saluted briskly and tried his best to keep the vitriol he had been reveling in from showing in his voice.

"There's no reason to salute me, and even less so for us to stand on ceremony." She said as she strolled across the hospital room. Each step she took was almost predator, "I have an offer for you, one that I assured my superiors you would be most amenable to."

"What's that?" Tedros asked. He drew himself up to full height, as if that would protect him from her aura, "And who might you be?"

"My name no longer holds any meaning, but you may refer to me as 'Snowstorm" Snowstorm stopped strolling only an arms length from Tedros, "As you know, most officers who had their ship destroyed by a fellow officer they had allowed to defect, and had let the Security Bureau agent assigned to hunt down the traitor die on board their ship would have been standing trial the second they had awaken from their coma.

"And most of my superiors would have loved to see you meet that fate, Captain. But I saw the bigger picture. I saw how you could still be of use to your Emperor." She paused as if to let her pardon sink into Tedros' mind, "I see you as the galaxy's foremost expert on certain traitor that I have been assigned to terminate."

Tedros felt the rage burn in his cheek again as he smiled.

"Whatever my Emperor asks of me." Tedros growled, "I'll do whatever it takes to end that bastard."

Snowstorm nodded.

 _Hapon won't know what hit him…_


End file.
